This paper is reproduced in L.Mayoux ed `Sustainable Learning for Women's Empowerment: Ways Forward in Micro-finance' published by Samskriti New Delhi. This contains the other papers to which this article refers. For details of how to obtain the book, please contact the author at L.mayoux@dial.pipex.com or the publisher: M.Sengupta samskriti@vsnl.com

INTRODUCTION

Micro-finance programmes targeting women became a major plank of donor poverty alleviation and gender strategies in the 1990s. Funding is set to further increase under current initiatives by CGAP and member donor agencies. Literature prepared for the Micro-credit Summit in Washington in 1997 and donor and NGO promotional material present an extremely attractive vision of increasing numbers of expanding, financially self-sustainable and even profitable micro-finance programmes. These are presented as not only reaching, but also empowering, large numbers of very poor women borrowers. Through their contribution to women's ability to earn an income these programmes are assumed to initiate a series of `virtuous spirals' of economic empowerment, increased well-being for women and their families and wider social and political empowerment. Most micro-finance for women is group-based, on the assumption that bringing women together in groups will be more empowering than individual lending. Funding for programmes which place prime emphasis on women's empowerment is decreasing.

Evidence suggests that micro-finance programmes do indeed have a potentially significant contribution to women's empowerment. However it also suggests this is not an automatic consequence of women's access to savings and credit or group formation per se. In many cases benefits may be marginal. Women's own interests are frequently subordinated to those of household poverty reduction and programme financial sustainability. In many cases programme staff openly state that the main motivation for targeting women is because they are perceived as more conscientious and ' docile ' clients. Unlike men they are prepared to devote considerable time and energy to group activity which decreases programme costs. Women are therefore a convenient, cost-effective and comparatively risk-free means of channeling loans to men within households and creating a savings base. In the light of the impact evidence, serious questions need to be asked about the degree to which programmes with such instrumentalist approach to female targeting merit their currently high profile on the development agenda.

Find Another Essay On Women Empowerment

1175 words - 5 pages
Although women throughout history are portrayed as the weaker of the two sexes, unable to defend themselves much less stand equally against their male counterparts, some stand out against the mundane background of the “ideal” woman. Labeled throughout history as troublemakers, perhaps these women are only attempting to exercise their power. Surely, their power is not found in their physical strength, but this power stems from a deeper source

2207 words - 9 pages
, most developing countries adopted population control methods focusing mainly on the empowerment of women and gender equality. In the earlier years, ecologists such as Garret Hardin argued that without coercion there will always be a group of people that are not in acquiescence with the use of prescribed methods for population control. Hardin concluded that it is this group that increases the population in the future. This paper on the other hand

1329 words - 5 pages
to blame (Korea4Expats). Fortunately for South Korea, since their first female president was elected, the status of women is constantly improving in the country (Rui). Fortunately for all nations, this event has also sparked much support of the notion towards the empowerment of women. Many nations and organization and NGO's are taking steps to end gender inequality liberate women from their stereotypes and persecutions. The United Nations also

1590 words - 7 pages
empowerment. The progress made with these goals is wonderful because women are getting many opportunities. However, with a target date of 2015 many of the goals are off track and lagging behind. The main goals off track are those revolving around women such as maternal health. (Key, 2011)
Placing women on the front lines of law enforcement is something countries are beginning to do. It is an easy way to show the empowerment of women and it is easy to

1338 words - 5 pages
encouraging their participation. The television series Sex and the City reflects an important vision of female empowerment that is now prevalent in today's society. Female empowerment has evolved through history, and through the use of sexual humor, women have been able to exert their newly acclaimed power in society.Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte represent a new generation of women who freely celebrate their sexuality and economic power

1718 words - 7 pages
sisters’ ego, she would attain a sense of empowerment and change her ways of submission. Kingston admired her mother for being an independent woman and for not being part of the typical stereotypes of the oriental women. As Kingston’s mother told her these stories of Chinese women, Kingston would fall asleep with the image of her mother being brave heroine; “I couldn’t tell where the stories left off and the dreams began, her voice the voice of the

1231 words - 5 pages
empowerment can be impacted, and the buy-in of the work groups can be negatively impacted when women feel there are unfair barriers to their self-determined goals.
Psychological empowerment is explained as a motivator based on intrinsic task motivation, that is based on the perception of the individual tasks as motivators to the goal (p. 103). These motivators are related to having a choice in their work, to complete a task based on their

2634 words - 11 pages
? It influences the thoughts of the people and shapes their attitudes and behaviours.
During the late 20th century, Japan experienced the rise of feminist movements who desired to change the feminine historical narrative. How did Japanese women become empowered? The paper will demonstrate that the empowerment of Japanese women shifted the representation of them within the medium of anime films, during the late twentieth century. Specifically, it

992 words - 4 pages
Empowerment of Women in Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus and Eavan Boland's Anorexic
Although the title foreshadows an extrinsic approach, this essay mostly features intrinsic analysis. Eavan Boland's "Anorexic" seems descendent from Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus": the two share common elements, yet have significant differences. An examination of the poems' themes reveals that self-destructiveness can serve as empowerment for women.
Plath

1996 words - 8 pages
Sexual Empowerment of Women in Behn's The Willing Mistress and The Disappointment
"All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, . . . for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." (Woolf 91)
Born in 1640, Aphra Behn broke gender stereotypes when she undertook a thrilling (if unrewarded) life as a spy for the Crown, but it was her scandalous career as an author which truly achieved many

1238 words - 5 pages
A womens education has become the key development objectives,“The establishment of Women University is an administrative task requiring human power planning and rethinking of the entire issue of the function of higher education for both men and women many questions have to be carefully considered before implementing the proposal. What do women do with higher education? How many of them actually pursue careers?
General observations suggests that

Similar Essays

8020 words - 32 pages
PARTICIPATORY PROGRAMME LEARNING FOR WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT IN MICRO-FINANCE PROGRAMMES:
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT AND PARTICIPATION IN MICRO-FINANCE:
EVIDENCE, ISSUES AND WAYS FORWARD
LINDA MAYOUX
We do not only want a piece of of the pie,
we also want to choose the flavour,
and know how to make it ourselves. (Ela Bhatt, SEWA quoted Rose 1992)
This paper is reproduced in L.Mayoux ed `Sustainable Learning for

1315 words - 6 pages
Economic Empowerment). When a woman has constant, secure employment, she is more likely to be financially independent and has less children. This securely employed woman is also able to save, a unique quality economically disadvantaged people do not enjoy. There have been many innovative proposals to solve this problem. The best solutions are expeditious vocational training programs for women. These centers not only create jobs, but they also

2199 words - 9 pages
archetypes, as societies acceptance of pornography has liberalized, so to have women as a whole reaped the rewards of greater equality. Pornography has been, and still is, a means of education, communication, and role-playing which allows for taboos to be broken beyond the bedroom. Pornography has been a source of sexual empowerment for women, and a front in the culture wars over women’s place in today’s culture.
If pornography is such a

1540 words - 7 pages
, and domestic brutality.
Background:
Women empowerment motivates women with the courage to get rid of the shackles of certain cultural traditions and religious terms that have customarily held women dormant and incapable of seeing the power they hold. The communities in Limpopo are very culturally rooted and the people stand by their traditions.
There has been a great debate on how to best promote the empowerment of women through rural projects